Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1887-11-03


noihins IN Iie ,OOrd bat tar; notLiNg in The
lrOrld. Now, there is great difference be-
tween these two kinds OF taxation. The di-
rect taxation is upon property, upon the
theory that it is the tax most certainly col
lected, and that, as property is protected by
the government, property ought to pay the
expenses OF carrying on the government.
The indirect tax is not tax on property like
direct tax, but it is a tar upon consumption;
tax that is paid by the consumer. The direct
tax is paid by the owner Of the property, the
indirect tax is paid by the man who consumes
the article on which the tax is levied. Let me
explain this in few words. A man, an i'm
porter, buys, say 500 worth of cloth in Eng
land, and brings it to this country for sale
he has paid for it there 500. When it
reaches New York, the collector of customs
says, you must pay tariff on this cloth of 40
per cent."-as the tariff is different on diff
ferent kinds Of cloth, cannot undertake to
say what the average would be, but l
think it would be somewhere about 40
per cent. Well, that is $4,000 that they de-
buys from the importer, has to pay in sddi-
ton to the 500, the original cost OF the cloth,
the $40 tariff thus levied in addition to the
freight, transportation, interest and so on; we
will leave them out and call it just $40. There
is $40 tax. Now, it has cost the New York
merchant $40 when he buys that cloth. The
importer pays the $40 tax, but now he gets
it back from the wholesale merchant in New
York who pays him in the price that he
gives for the goods this $40 tax which the inn
porter paid. Then the New York merchant
sells that cloth to merchant here in the city
of Kenton, and he must get from this mer-
chant of the city of Kenton $l40, with his
profits and interest and the like, otherwise
he would lose money, and he could not carry
on the business. So the merchant here in
Kenton reimburses to the New York merchant
the $40 tariff tax that he has paid. Well,
then, he must put that on the price OF the
cloth when he sells it to you, and so when
you come to buy that cloth to make clothes
for yourself or your wives or your children,
in the price you pay the merchant here in
Kenton, is that $40 tariff tax. In word,
you, the consumer, pay the tax. Now, am
not going to say that the tariff will or ever
ought to be abolished, though l do say that
the present tariff Is naenstrous, and ought to be
greatly reformed. That do say. (Applause).
But let us look further at this thing. | have
said that, when the tax is upon property, the
man who oa0nS the property pays it, but when
the tax is upon consumption, it may fall
harder upon a man who has no property
than man who is worth a million.
Take the very case have put You need
$40 worth of goods for yourself and your
family. You are poor man; you support
yourself by your daily labor, but you must
have these goods to protect yourself and the
good wife and children from the inclemen-
cies of the weather, and, that they may ap-
pear decently, and 80 you buy this $l00 worth
of cloth and pay for it $l40 and thereby pay
$40 tariff tax, but right next door to you may
be man worth million of dollars who may
be rusty, crusty, fussy old bachelor Qaugh-
ter). God forgive him for being so (renewed
laughter); he does not need any $l4O worth
of store goods; he covers his shriveled old
hide in much less than that great laughter); {;
instead of paying $40 tariff tax on the goods
he buys, he does not pay perhaps more than
ten or twenty at the outside. But that is not
the worst feature about it yet. When taxes
are collected by direct means every dollar
that is collected goes into the public treasury
and helps toward the support OF the govern
ment but when taxes are collected by these
indirect means, or by tariff, as it is called
then the effect of it is to raise the price o1
all the commodities that are taxed, whether
they are made abroad or whether they are
made at home, and the consequence is that
when the price is raised on those articles that
are thus manufactured at home, when the
manufacturer of cloth in New England car
charge 40 per cent or some part thereof more
for his cloth than he could without the tax
then to the amount that the articles thu
made here are raised in price, every cent O
that money, which is taken out of you
pockets, goes into the pocket of the protected
manufacturer and increases his fortune while
it takes away your means of life great ap
plause).
Now, there are some conveniences abou
collecting tax by tariff, which will foreve
perhaps perpetuate such laws and Enoto o
nobody aUho advocates absolute free trade, but
do know that the American people are rest
i've, and know that they ought to be restiw un
der this miserable tariff that we now have
which taxes over 1900 articles that are con
sumed by the people of the United States
and I hope that the time will come whel
those who are in favor of honest taTdtion Wi